The NBA draft is all the rage. Prospects are dissected, measured
and weighed, interviewed and analyzed, compared to heroes of yesteryear.
There is the pre-draft camp, the endless talk show hustle as well as fantasy
drafts. Preceded by hype, hope and hoopla, the NBA Draft will finally arrive
(this time out of Brooklyn) with a cast of hundreds of personalities, nationally
televised hour after hour. And then there is the endless post-draft
commentary.

Once
upon a time things were quite different in a simpler world and a smaller
NBA. The first draft in 1947 saw first-round selections made by Pittsburgh,
Boston, Providence, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, Washington
and Baltimore. No name from that first-round faraway time (aside from Knicks
draftee Walt Dropo, who went on to a distinguished Major League baseball
career) had any kind of real basketball
impact.

The
records from that primitive time are so shrouded in a time warp that a couple
of the players drafted in '47 like Bob Alemeida and George Petrovick have
a question mark next to their name signifying a lack of information as to
the college they played
for.

A
few non-first-round players went on to make a name for themselves in pro
ball like Andy Phillip out of Illinois, Jim Pollard from Stanford, Bob Kurland
of Oklahoma A&M, and Red Rocha who had played at Oregon
State.

A
footnote to NBA history is Tony Lavelli of Yale, taken by Boston in the 1949
Draft. He went on to play the accordion for the Celtics at half time, sometimes.
But contrary to rumors, his musical skill was not one of the reasons for
Boston drafting
him.

The
1950 Draft went 10 rounds for some teams and 12 for others, as a few teams
lost interest. Territorial picks were sometimes much fought over and debated.
The exclusive right to draft a player who came from a team's geographical
region gave Philadelphia the legendary Paul Arizin in
1950.

A
couple of others who went on to fame and glory were picked in that draft:
Bud Grant (NFL) by Minneapolis and Bob Cousy by
Tri-Cities.

The
1951 NBA Draft lasted 12 rounds, but most teams stopped picking by then.
The First Round went this
way:

Team
Player
College

1
(Baltimore) Gene Melchiorre,
Bradley

2
(TriCities) Mel Hutchins, Brigham
Young

3
(Indianapolis) Marcus Freiberger,
Oklahoma

4
(Ft Wayne) Zeke Sinicola,
Niagara

5
(Syracuse) John McConathy, NW
Louisiana

6
(NY Knicks) Ed Smith,
Harvard

7
(Boston) Ernie Barrett, Kansas
State

8
(Rochester) Sam Ranzino, North Carolina
State

9
(Philadelphia) Don Sunderlage,
Illinois

10
(Minneapolis) Whitey Skoog,
Minnesota*

*The
pick of Skoog was a Territorial
one.

In
the sixth round, the New York Knicks plucked Al McGuire from St. John's.
The last player picked was John Burke of Springfield, Massachusetts by Baltimore
in the 12th round. By 1966, the territorial (having first rights to a player
in your geographical region) selections were eliminated. A year later, the
New York Knicks used their fifth pick to get Walt Frazier and their 17th
to obtain Phil Jackson (yes that Phil
Jackson).

In
the ensuing years, all types of marquee players and also-rans have made their
way onto NBA rosters through the draft. In my opinion, the 1970 and 1981
NBA Drafts rank among the all-time best yielding bumper crops of
players.

The
1981 draft included such gems as Isiah Thomas by Detroit (2nd); Mark Aguirre
by Dallas (1st); Buck Williams by New Jersey (3rd); Tom Chambers by San Diego
(8th); Rolando Blackman by Dallas (9th); Danny Ainge by Boston (31st); Kelly
Tripuka by Detroit (12th); Orlando Wooldridge by Chicago (6th); and Eddie
Johnson by Kansas City
(29th).

Who
knows what the NBA Draft 2013 has in store. Stay
tuned.

About the Author

Dr. Harvey Frommer received his Ph.D. from New York University. Professor
Emeritus, Distinguished Professor nominee, Recipient of the "Salute to Scholars
Award" at CUNY where he taught writing for many years, the prolific author
was cited by the Congressional Record and the New York State Legislature
as a sports historian and journalist.